ABSTRACT
Sir John Falstaff for the first time ran roaring from Gadshill, the fact of his cowardice was taken for granted. Falstaff was immensely popular with readers and playgoers alike. In the seventeenth century, allusions to him are far more numerous, by actual count, than those to any other Shakespearian character. A carefully reasoned reply by Richard Stack appeared in The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. It is curious to find Mr. Dover Wilson taking issue repeatedly with the contentions of the Maurice Morgann school. Falstaff's behavior at Shrewsbury and Gadshill remains to be considered. At Shrewsbury, then, he led his ragamuffins where they were peppered; is found, where the fighting is fiercest, and escapes death by means of a quite legitimate stratagem. The complicated happenings at Gadshill, Morgann takes up last of all, and he admits the possibility that Falstaff in this single instance yielded to a momentary and quite understandable terror.
